It also had more than six million active advertisers, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said on a call with investors.

Looking forward

Those advertisers, many of them small and medium-sized businesses, helped lift total Facebook revenue 47% year-on-year to $10.3bn. That included $10.1bn from ads.

The firm said it expected ad prices to increase, driving future growth. But it warned that the pace of expansion had been slowing.

The firm also said it expected expenses to increase between 45% and 60% in 2018. Facebook said it was investing in security initiatives, new technology and video.

In the Washington hearings, Facebook said 10,000 people were working on the platform’s safety and security and it expected that number to double by the end of 2018.

Many of those people work for “partners”, the firm told analysts. Facebook employed about 23,165 people at the end of September.

The firm said it was also tightening it standards for ads, including those focused on charged political issues.

“We believe that ads are important to free expression… but we will also do our part to elevate the quality of that discourse,” Ms Sandberg said, Shares in the firm fell about 1.5% in after-hours trade.